There are some lessons that my daughters are learning pretty quickly about me.
a)I don’t iron and therefore if you leave your uniform in a heap, you (not me) will get bellowed at by your headmistress the next day.
b) I don’t do instant, so if you tell me about a school trip/lunch money/ sports day/ requirement for x,y,z unusual things in the car on the way to school, you can whistle for it.
c) It doesn’t matter how late you leave your homework, it will neither do itself, nor will I do it for you.
And therefore Amelie, who effortlessly ignored her year 6 leaving project all half term, found herself missing gym, playdates and friend time this last two weeks while she fitted an entire project about Hollywood into the few hours we could grab here and there between other things.
I’m not a big fan of homework, admittedly but I do like projects and I thought she picked a great idea to study too. I’m not sure where it came from, but it suited her.
However.
Several whip cracks and grumpy sessions at the table later, I discovered she had a beautifully highlighted and laid out sheet about remembering punctuation, spelling, ‘level five connectives’ (rolls eyes) and grammar… but no actual work. A few more sessions and some had happened, scruffily written on sheets she planned to rewrite on carefully hand crafted paper.
With 5 days to go, I made her ACTUALLY do some of what I had suggested, like make a plan, type up what she had written, acknowledge she had nothing like enough, stop creating *^%&ing word art titles with no work underneath them… etc etc etc… and start researching.
When she really got down to it, with a few suggestions from me on exploring some film history, some names from the past and some topics like wartime newsreels – and she actually finished the damn thing tonight, a very creditable bit of work albeit finished during a week that was quite stressful enough as it is.
I refuse to do their work for them. They don’t have to be at school and I’m damn sure I don’t need to learn any of this stuff either. I have no objection to coaching them through plans, helping them Google efficiently or (in Fran’s case this week) pass on revision tips. But I’m not doing the work for them and the sooner everyone learns that, the better. Nagging I can do but I tell you, this school mum lark is worse than home ed, no doubt about it!
This evening, this little miss was very pleased with herself and she has a new role model apparently… Marilyn Monroe.
Be very, very afraid.
I did laugh at this whilst nodding in complete agreement. When N went into school, he too learned very quickly that Mums do not complete homework, bring forgotten items into school, or get school uniform from a heap under the bed into a washing machine. It was an interesting time. (((hugs))) x
Just momentarily I thought you were describing my essay writing process there…..
What is the secret to not ironing (other than buying lots of fab clingy phase 8 dresses that can be scrunched in a hand bag but still look great.) is there a trick with folding to dry in a certain way?
It’s a mind numbingly tedious task but it’s me not the children who get embarrassed about how it looks. Do they iron their own things?
I know myself well enough at the moment (working on it!) that if we did go back to school I will indeed scrabble under beds for outfits, chase them around with hairbrushes, stay up late trying to learn what the school is asking them to understand, spoon feed spoon feed spoon feed (now it can’t be that bad, at least I know I’m doing it which is a start!) — thanks for this strong mum reminder
Even if I iron their stuff they leave it on the floor and still look as though they’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards.
I agree, school mumming is worse than HE mumming. The only way through it is to totally give them the responsibility for it. They do learn to give you more than a minute’s notice for everything, eventually …
My eldest is starting school in September and you’ve given me some good tips to introduce straight away, thank you. I rarely iron so hopefully she already knows not to ask.
Wow! I should get tougher. I hated moving from home ed mum to school mum – I feel like I am no longer in control of my own life and family, but perhaps I give-in too often.